Active layerWaffle House mapped locations
State color and dots use the same OpenStreetMap snapshot generated May 12, 2026. Counts reflect mapped brand-tagged locations in the contiguous U.S., not an official store census, and can lag openings, closures, or missing tags.
Source: OpenStreetMap Overpass brand-tagged locations, ODbL 1.0.
Map mode
How to read thisDarker states have more of the selected signal. Borders show the comparison layer when comparison is enabled.
State-shape map data is unavailable. The equal-state grid remains available.
Few or no stores
Dense Waffle House signal
Current path
Food maps open the argument
The video starts with Waffle House as both disaster shorthand and a strong Southeast signal, then expands into chains, searches, barbecue, and diabetes.
9/9 maps wired100% complete
- Step
- 00:00
- Boundary move
- Texas
- Leading signal
- Waffle House
Covered here
Waffle HouseHog inventoryBojanglesCook OutKrystalPiggly WigglyPecan pieSweet teaDiabetes
Still missing
Boundary board
Signals and cuts
Each chapter proposes a state to cut and a map to crown. Walk the signals, then build your own boundary.
Your bracket
Accept or challenge the current cut.
Build your own boundary argument while you compare the evidence maps.
Cut states
None yet
Final map
Not chosen
Shareable link · layer, comparison & bracket
Layer sourcesWhere each layer's data comes from
Every layer has a visible source frame, status, and caution note. Verified layers drive the map directly; definition layers are boundary frames for comparison.
| Layer | Status | Group | Source frame | Caution |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Census South division | definition | definitions | U.S. Census Bureau regional classification. | Binary classification, shown as 100 for Census South states and 0 outside the division. |
| Deep South definition | definition | definitions | Common historical and cultural regional definitions. | A fuzzy educational layer, not an official legal geography. |
| Historic Confederacy | definition | definitions | Historical state membership, 1861 to 1865. | Historical overlay for context. It should be framed carefully and never used as a present-day identity shortcut. |
| Border South | definition | definitions | Cultural and historical border-state interpretation. | Highlights states whose southern identity varies sharply by county, city, and subregion. |
| Coastal and lowland South | definition | land | Coastal plains and lowland ecoregion classification. | State-level approximation of lowland South based on coastal plain and alluvial plain geography. |
| FEMA natural hazard risk | verified | land | FEMA National Risk Index Counties ArcGIS FeatureServer, December 2025. | Population-weighted average of county composite Risk Index scores by state. FEMA cautions that NRI is designed for county and tract comparison, so use this state layer as a broad screening signal only. |
| Black alone population share | verified | people | U.S. Census Bureau 2024 ACS 5-year profile API, DP05_0045PE. | Verified state-level ACS value. County and tract versions should still show estimate year and margins where available. |
| Median household income | verified | people | U.S. Census Bureau 2024 ACS 5-year profile API, DP03_0062E. | Verified state-level ACS value, shown as thousands of dollars. |
| Manufactured homes share | verified | people | U.S. Census Bureau 2024 ACS 5-year profile API, DP04_0014PE. | Verified state-level ACS mobile home share. This remains a housing-form signal, not a cultural proxy by itself. |
| Scotch-Irish ancestry share | verified | people | U.S. Census Bureau 2024 ACS 5-year detailed table B04006_066E. | Share of total state population reporting Scotch-Irish ancestry. ACS ancestry is self-reported and state-level here, so it should be read as a broad settlement-memory signal, not a full Appalachian or Ulster Scots culture map. |
| Vietnamese population share | verified | people | U.S. Census Bureau 2024 ACS 5-year detailed table B02015_019E. | Vietnamese count from the Asian-alone selected-groups table, divided by total state population. The video talks about Gulf Coast pockets, so county or metro detail would be stronger than this state-level screening layer. |
| Vietnamese county pocket | verified | people | U.S. Census Bureau 2024 ACS 5-year county detailed table B02015_019E. | Highest county-level Vietnamese share within each state, using ACS county estimates. This better reflects local Gulf Coast and metro pockets than a statewide average, while still fitting the current state-map interface. |
| Great Migration city gain | verified | people | U.S. Census Bureau Great Migration visualization, city-level decennial census table for 1910 to 1970. | Largest positive percentage-point gain in Black population share among Census-listed cities in each state, combining the 1910-1940 and 1940-1970 periods. This shows destination-city change, not complete migration flows or rural origin losses. |
| Diagnosed diabetes prevalence | verified | health | CDC PLACES 2023 county release through data.cdc.gov Socrata API. | Unweighted county averages by state for comparison. Consider population weighting and confidence intervals for production use. |
| Excessive drinking prevalence | verified | health | CDC PLACES 2023 county release through data.cdc.gov Socrata API. | Verified source pull, shown as unweighted county averages by state. Useful as a counter-pattern because it does not simply track many Southern identity definitions. |
| Waffle House mapped locations | verified | culture | OpenStreetMap Overpass brand-tagged locations, ODbL 1.0. | State color and dots use the same OpenStreetMap snapshot generated May 12, 2026. Counts reflect mapped brand-tagged locations in the contiguous U.S., not an official store census, and can lag openings, closures, or missing tags. |
| Hog and pig inventory | verified | culture | USDA NASS 2022 Census of Agriculture complete Quick Stats dataset. | State-level 2022 hog and pig inventory. USDA disclosure-suppressed state totals are not guessed and appear as zero in this map layer. |
| Cotton harvested acres | verified | land | USDA NASS 2022 Census of Agriculture complete Quick Stats dataset. | State-level 2022 cotton harvested acres. USDA disclosure-suppressed state totals are not guessed and appear as zero in this map layer. |
| Pecan pie food-culture proxy | definition | culture | Texas official state pie, Oklahoma state meal, and Southern foodways references. | State-level proxy for the video's pecan-pie search map. It emphasizes official-food recognition and Southern foodway association, not live Google Trends search interest. |
| Sweet tea culture proxy | definition | culture | Southern foodways and American tea-culture references. | State-level proxy for the video's sweet-tea search map. It marks the classic Southern sweet-tea belt and border states, not live Google Trends search interest or beverage sales. |
| Bojangles state footprint | verified | culture | Bojangles official location index, accessed May 12, 2026. | Binary state-presence signal from the official Bojangles locations page. Geographic dots use OSM coordinates and may be less complete than the official list. |
| Cook Out state footprint | verified | culture | Cook Out official locations page, accessed May 12, 2026. | Binary state-presence signal from the official Cook Out locations page. Geographic dots use OSM coordinates and may be less complete than the official list. |
| Krystal state footprint | verified | culture | Krystal official locations page embedded location payload, accessed May 12, 2026. | Binary state-presence signal from the official Krystal locations page. Geographic dots use OSM coordinates and may be less complete than the official list. |
| Piggly Wiggly state footprint | verified | culture | Piggly Wiggly official store-locations page, accessed May 12, 2026. | Binary state-presence signal from the official Piggly Wiggly store-locations page. Geographic dots use OSM coordinates and may be less complete than the official list. |
| Right-to-work state signal | definition | politics | National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) right-to-work state tracking, 2024. | Binary classification: 100 for states with active right-to-work laws, 0 for states without. Does not include effective date or local variation. |
| 2024 presidential Republican winner | verified | politics | Federal Election Commission official 2024 presidential general election results. | Binary state-level result: 100 where Donald J. Trump carried the state in the official 2024 presidential general election results, 0 where Kamala D. Harris carried the state. County-level results remain future work. |
| 2024 Republican county share | verified | politics | MIT Election Data and Science Lab county presidential returns 2000-2024, via public ArcGIS FeatureServer. | Share of county or county-equivalent rows in a state where the Republican presidential nominee won in 2024, using mode=TOTAL. This captures county-map shape, not statewide popular vote. |
| Republican governor, current | verified | politics | National Governors Association current governors roster, cross-checked with party list current to 2026. | Binary state-level snapshot as of May 12, 2026. Governor party control changes after elections, resignations, or succession, so this layer should be refreshed before publication cycles. |
| Early school-start regional signal | definition | politics | Pew Research Center 2023 school-start-date analysis, with Census division framing. | State-level regional proxy from Pew's 2023 district sample. West South Central states receive the strongest signal; East South Central plus Florida and Georgia receive a high signal. This is not a district calendar dataset. |
| Gullah Geechee corridor signal | definition | culture | National Park Service Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor. | State-level signal for states intersecting the federally recognized coastal corridor from Wilmington, North Carolina to Jacksonville, Florida. This does not imply statewide cultural uniformity. |
| US Forest Service region signal | verified | land | US Forest Service regional boundaries, imported via manual CSV. | Real state-level membership in USFS Southern Region (Region 8) and partially adjacent regions. |
| HHS Region 4 health-agency South | definition | definitions | U.S. Department of Health and Human Services regional offices, Region 4 Atlanta. | Binary institutional definition for the eight-state HHS Region 4. CDC is an HHS agency headquartered in Atlanta, so this represents the federal health-agency Southeast frame rather than CDC PLACES health data. |
| USPS Southern Area delivery region | definition | definitions | United States Postal Service retail and delivery area restructuring, 2021. | Binary institutional definition for the USPS Southern Area. USPS described it as an 11-state area plus Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands; this state map encodes only the state membership. |
| American alligator range | definition | land | U.S. Geological Survey American Alligator range map data release, 2018. | State-level intersection with the USGS known range extent for Alligator mississippiensis. This is not a county habitat or population-density map. |
| Burmese python established range | definition | land | U.S. Geological Survey Burmese python science synthesis and spread records. | State-level signal for the established invasive Burmese python population in southern Florida. This intentionally avoids projecting future range or treating all of Florida as equally affected. |
| Kudzu reported range | definition | land | USDA Forest Service FEIS species review for Pueraria montana var. lobata. | Binary state-level presence from the Forest Service species review's states-and-provinces list. It marks reported range, not acreage, severity, or county-level infestation. |
| Spanish moss range | definition | land | Nature's Notebook species profile for Tillandsia usneoides, with USDA PLANTS attribution. | Binary state-level species range list. Spanish moss is local and climate-sensitive within many listed states, so this is a range-presence layer, not an abundance map. |
| Private forest ownership share | verified | land | USDA Forest Service FIA EVALIDator API, most-recent state evaluations. | Private forest land acres divided by public plus private forest land acres from FIA area estimates by major ownership group. Alaska uses the current Alaska Coastal evaluation available through the public API, so compare Alaska cautiously. |
| Forest type diversity | verified | land | USDA Forest Service FIA EVALIDator API, most-recent state evaluations. | Count of FIA forest type groups with at least 1% of a state's forest land area. This is a state-level forest-composition proxy for the video's tree-diversity idea, not a species-richness or biodiversity index. |
| Piedmont red-clay proxy | definition | land | U.S. EPA Level III Ecoregions, Piedmont and Northern Piedmont state intersections. | State-level proxy for the video's red-clay map. It marks Southern Piedmont core states highest and adjacent northern Piedmont states lower. It is not a measured soil-color or clay-content raster. |
| Religion adherent signal | verified | culture | U.S. Religion Census / ARDA 2020, imported via manual CSV. | Real state-level religious adherence rates. County-level drilldown would require ARDA county download. |
| Religious congregations per capita | verified | culture | 2020 U.S. Religion Census state summary. | Verified state-level congregations per 100,000 population from the 2020 U.S. Religion Census. This measures institution density, not adherent share or belief. |
| Generic Coke soft-drink term | verified | culture | PopVsSoda state survey counts, mirrored by Brilliant Maps in 2025. | Share of state survey responses using Coke as a generic term for soft drinks. This is a web-survey language signal, not a representative linguistic poll. |
| Country radio station count | verified | culture | RadioStationDex country-format station directory, sourced from public FCC records and accessed May 12, 2026. | Raw count of listed country-format broadcast stations by state. This is a radio-format infrastructure proxy, not a measure of country-music listening, artists, venues, or cultural influence. |
| Y'all dialect-map proxy | definition | culture | Cambridge Online Survey of World Englishes, address-a-group question map. | State-level proxy from the Cambridge survey's public map patterns and answer legend for address terms. It is not a raw state survey table and should be read as a broad dialect-region layer. |
| Pajamas vowel-map proxy | definition | culture | Cambridge Online Survey of World Englishes, second vowel in pajamas question map. | State-level proxy from the Cambridge survey's public tile map for the second vowel in pajamas. It flags the Southern-leaning dialect pattern as a map argument, not as a precise phonetic measurement by state. |
| Megachurch count | verified | culture | Hartford Institute for Religion Research Megachurches by State database. | Count of listed U.S. megachurch records by state from Hartford's state-indexed database. This is a directory count, not attendance per capita, theological influence, or a complete census of religious life. |
| Missouri Compromise memory map | definition | definitions | National Archives description of the Missouri Compromise, 1820. | Educational state-level approximation of 1820 slave-state and south-of-line geography. This is historical context, not a present-day identity claim. |
| HOLC redlining mapped areas | verified | politics | Mapping Inequality Redlining Areas ArcGIS FeatureServer, city-survey polygons. | Count of digitized HOLC city-survey redlining map areas by state. This is dataset coverage of mapped areas, not a complete measure of redlining, segregation, or discriminatory lending. |
| School segregation required before Brown | definition | politics | National Archives summary of Brown v. Board of Education, 1954. | Binary layer for states that had laws requiring racially segregated public schools in 1954. This captures legal status immediately before Brown, not local compliance after the decision or de facto segregation. |
| School segregation permitted before Brown | definition | politics | National Archives summary of Brown v. Board of Education, 1954. | Binary layer for states that permitted, but did not require, racially segregated public schools in 1954. This is a legal-status layer, not a measure of local school segregation. |
| Native federal land entities | verified | land | U.S. Census Bureau TIGERweb 2024 AIANNH federal reservation and off-reservation trust land layers. | Count of federal American Indian/Alaska Native/Native Hawaiian reservation or off-reservation trust land entities intersecting each state. This is a state-level presence count, not acreage, sovereignty status, population, or a complete Indigenous history layer. |
| Documented racial terror lynchings | verified | politics | Equal Justice Initiative Lynching in America county data supplement, updated November 2024. | State total of documented African American victims of racial terror lynching from 1877 to 1950, summed from EJI county/parish totals. This is a grave historical violence layer, not a cultural identity shortcut. |
| Mapped cemetery features | verified | culture | GeoNames U.S. gazetteer dump, feature code S.CMTY. | Count of GeoNames cemetery features by state. This is a public gazetteer coverage layer for the video's cemetery-map idea, not a complete cemetery census or historical burial-ground inventory. |
| SEC member-state footprint | definition | culture | Southeastern Conference membership after Texas and Oklahoma joined in 2024. | Binary state signal for states with at least one current SEC member institution. Sports geography is a cultural proxy, not a definition by itself. |
Location data © OpenStreetMap contributors, available under theOpen Data Commons Open Database License.Download the licensed point snapshot. Cemetery features include GeoNames data underCC BY 4.0. Other layers retain the source and caution shown above. This product uses the Census Bureau Data API but is not endorsed or certified by the Census Bureau. South Mapped is a noncommercial research and education project.